Carola Rackete, the sea-captain who rescued 41 migrants from off the coast of Libya, and safely transported them to Lampedusa, was freed from house arrest on Tuesday.

The ruling judge, Alessandra Vella, said that Rackete was looking to save lives; and that this concern trumps all other legal concerns. Predictably, the thuggish and cynical Italian premier Matteo Salvini insulted the judge and her decision, and also criticised Rackete as a “spoiled German girl”. He also claimed, in a somewhat laughably chauvinistic formulation, that the judge’s decision would make “real Italians cry”. Well, in response to this, I can only say, sometimes tears taste sweet.

Rackete, waited “in international waters for more than two weeks with some 41 migrants picked up from seas off Libya”. She then decided “to enter Lampedusa on Saturday, defying naval orders and hitting a police patrol boat in the process.

[She] faced up to 10 years in prison on possible charges of endangering the lives of four servicemen aboard the patrol boat. Justifying her ruling, Judge Vella said the captain had been following her duty and played down the collision.”

Rackete is undoubtedly a heroine for defying various unjust laws and practises. But of course, for many, she is a criminal and a threat; someone who has “betrayed” Europe. However, focussing too narrowly on Rackete misses a real point, namely, she shouldn’t have had to have been there in the first place.

If the EU had not stopped sea patrols to save migrants earlier this year (as a result of Italy’s threat to veto the entire operation), then individuals such as Rackete, and organisations such as Sea-Watch.org would not be required to take such risks. Indeed, we can go further and say that if the EU was not so determined on maintaining ‘Fortress Europe’, then a safe corridor for migrants from Libya and elsewhere could have been found many years ago. Instead, it has deliberately made passage to Europe as difficult as possible, to discourage migration.

As such, the abdication of responsibility by the EU and its institutions, has directly led to the migrant crisis becoming a theatre of individual action. Rackete is being vilified, threatened and mocked all across Europe by right-wingers of all stripes, simply for saving lives. Of course, those who threaten her do not see the 41 people she saved as human beings, rather, as “illegals”, “criminals”, or worse. By abandoning official and institutional responses to save these people, the EU also implicitly endorses this view; that these are lives which are not worth saving, or, that these people are not really people, instead they are “criminals”, or worse.

Salvini’s rhetoric inflames this situation and encourages anti-migrant movements, but it is nothing close to the real problem. The real problem is abandoning these people in the first place.

Image: dpa